OMG...I'm so gonna crash

[alpha754293]

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/07/ford-shifter/

 

Ignore the shifter part of it since it doesn't apply to use FFH users/drivers, but I've been doing some research and reading about the whole OpenXC and how you can develop your own app and my only though is "OMG...I'm so gonna crash." (because I'd be too busy looking at the screen on the tablet rather than the road).

 

And while I'm probably supposed to be making all kinds of legal disclaimers and statements about keeping your eyes on the road, never using your app/device while the vehicle is in motion, etc. etc. etc., still...part of me is thinking..."oooh...NEW toy!" and more specifically, my new toy interacting with my other new toy (the car). loll...recipe for disaster!

 

But if you're interested in getting more info than what your dash/instrument cluster will give you, reading it off the CAN bus via the OpenXC might be one way around it. yay Ford!

[kuzzi]

I've always liked this type of technology. It will help out tremendously when building cars as you can create gauges that aren't available in stock form. For example, my BII and bike don't have tachometers. When tuning the bike, I had a handheld unit attached to the handlebars that helped me target specific RPM and throttle opening ranges for tuning. My BII will need both a tach and a boost gauge when I put the diesel in it so I can make sure I'm not overstressing components while deciding what transmission changes need to happen. This stuff can be adapted to apps.

 

As far as the shifting part in the article, I've driven a modded 350z with a short throw shifter and I have to agree with the first part of the article saying that being able to move the lever is part of the experience. I prefer the 2 ft throw of my BII lever over that 350z any day.

[acdii]

Hmm I have stuff like this for my RC planes. There is even a dongle I can plug into my Iphone that will link with the telemetry module in the plane. It can read airspeed, altitude, drift, GPS, engine temps, RPM, air temp, G forces ETC. You can view it all on your ipad or iphone. Pretty neat stuff these days, things you could only dream about back in the 80's when I first got into RC.

[alpha754293]

Hmm I have stuff like this for my RC planes. There is even a dongle I can plug into my Iphone that will link with the telemetry module in the plane. It can read airspeed, altitude, drift, GPS, engine temps, RPM, air temp, G forces ETC. You can view it all on your ipad or iphone. Pretty neat stuff these days, things you could only dream about back in the 80's when I first got into RC.

 

Well, for me, it's mostly diagnostic of having a whatever-size-tablet as my new instrument cluster.

 

I read a long time ago that car reviewers like Top Gear said that the Nissan GT-R with its innate ability to display like g's, boost, etc... is having a Playstation in your car.

 

THIS blows THAT outta the water. It looks like that the firmware that you load onto the CAN bus reader (that you either build or buy) translates the proprietary Ford code into cross-platform CAN bus code/data that non-Ford people can read.

 

I'm not sure what's all available that you can read on the CAN bus, but I would imagine that pretty much anywhere, anything where there's a sensor, it's probably going to be on the CAN bus, and you're just tapping into it and listening in/snooping in on the CAN network as a spectator. The benefit, being, of course, that while you can't control the car with it (as far as I know, it's read-only), but coupled with other stuff outside of the car, with a little bit of reading and/or engineering knowledge, you can create all sorts of displays.

 

I talked, very briefly, to the guy that make the haptic shift knob (mostly about the OpenXC platform), so now imagine that if you were sitting in your FFH with like the laptop stands that police has/uses except that you have your tablet on there and you can bring up more information that you might know what to do with and stuff.

 

I haven't found out if the tablet is absolutely required (trying to see if either it can be sent to an emulated devices on the Android developer tool - Eclipse) or whether that can be sent directly to the development system (probably a laptop of some sort) and then you can maybe use other tools/apps to read the incoming data stream. (I'm used to Texas Instruments' LabVIEW for something like that, although it's quite possible that I might be able to do it with MATLAB/SImulink as well.)

 

I, for one, would LOVE to take the braking coach up to the next level if at all possible (because I find that you actually can't really tell when you're on the pads or not or whether you've completely maximized the regenerative braking capabilities without using the friction pads).

 

The possibilties are endless. And even if you decide that you aren't going to use this for your FFH, but you're going to use it for your other Ford vehicles that you might own - just imagine what you can be doing with your other cars?

 

And it also, once again, looks like that Ford is the ONLY Automotive OEM that's doing this - imagine...

[acdii]

I, for one, would LOVE to take the braking coach up to the next level if at all possible (because I find that you actually can't really tell when you're on the pads or not or whether you've completely maximized the regenerative braking capabilities without using the friction pads).

 

+1 This is something I mentioned a while back that would be VERY helpful. Knowing just how much pressure to apply greatly enhances the ability to capture as much as possible.

[alpha754293]

+1 This is something I mentioned a while back that would be VERY helpful. Knowing just how much pressure to apply greatly enhances the ability to capture as much as possible.

 

So I've talked with the developers and unfortunately, the firmware for the CAN bus reader has not been released to the public, especially pertaining to the hybrid specific electrical signals.

 

Feel free to deduce why. (since I can't say/comment on it.) Hint: For the 2013 generation, think about who developed it. Then think about why it's not available. (The reason becomes pretty obvious.)

[rfruth]

So I guess Ford is an example of a OEM who does not wish to make the CAN signals public ?

[alpha754293]

So I guess Ford is an example of a OEM who does not wish to make the CAN signals public ?

 

Well...quite the contrary. The firmware is the proprietary-to-standard CAN bus message translator right? (That's what it says on the OpenXCPlatform website).

 

Here's an analogy and let's see if you can deduce from there - it's like how in Formula 1, the competitors don't know anything about how each other's engines are tuned/designed/engineered to perform. Surely, if you're able to read what the ECM is doing, you can figure out a LOT of stuff that's going on just by running the engine under various conditions and then you can back calculate how the engine is designed/engineered.

 

So instead, it's long been known that different F1 teams would make sound recordings of each others engines as the respective teams are running it and they try to figure out what's going on solely based on that, with obviously a LOT more limitations/restrictions than if you can tap into the system directly.

 

Also, contrary to your statement, Ford is the ONLY OEM that you can do this to/with (that I am aware of, and not because I work for them). The OpenXCPlatform is open-source, external to Ford meaning you can build your DIY CAN bus reader (essentially) and then whatever data that you're reading off of it, you can do other stuff with it. (And the fact that you can build your own DIY CAN bus reader, has a lot to do it.) So if you're going to make a statement like that, make sure that you can back it up with evidence because as far as I'm aware of, NO OTHER CAR MANUFACTURER publishes their CAN bus signals directly to the public. In fact, I'm not sure how many of them publish them so openly that you can build your own CAN bus reader to decode said CAN bus messages.

 

Course, if you have evidence to the contrary, please, by all means, share.

 

C'mon man! THINK! THINK HARDER!

 

Good luck trying to tap into the CAN broadcast messages of the Toyota hybrid system or the VW Jetta Hybrid system or the Hyundai/Kia's etc. etc. etc.

[rfruth]

I wasn't making a statement (thats why I ended my sentence with a question mark) Still trying to wrap my head around openXC / Can bus thing - sounds like a good idea to me.